Bodyswap
by HaliaeetusLeucocephalus
Summary: Victoria is devastated when Plato breaks up with her and goes running to Mistoffelees for comfort. When she asks him to use his magic to make her feel better, something rather unexpected occurs... xx
1. Blue

"Plato!"

Victoria had been looking forward to seeing her tomfriend all day. They had been together for a year now. One whole year, she still couldn't believe it. To celebrate the pair had decided to go for a special meal with Bustopher Jones in one of London's most expensive restaurants. They were supposed to set off at eight, but Victoria had been waiting since just past five. In her whole life she couldn't remember ever having been so excited. And he was finally here. Victoria dashed across the Junkyard towards him, ready to throw her arms around his neck but before she could hug him, he stopped her.

"Vicky." His voice sounded resigned, almost sad. The contrast to Victoria's greeting was almost painful. Plato let out a long, drawn-out sigh. "Look, we have to talk."

The little white queen was still too excited to fully notice or understand Plato's demeanour. Her thoughts were too preoccupied with the meal and the wonderful year she had spent with Plato. "What about? We're going to be late, we promised Bustopher that...", she began, laughing slightly.

Before she had a chance to finish the young tom interrupted her: "I can't do this anymore." He looked up from the ground at his feet, which he had been studying intently, and into her eyes. His gaze was sad but determined.

The buzz of excitement was extinguished as if someone had thrown a bucket of icy water over Victoria's head. She felt herself start shaking and when she spoke, her voice trembled and quivered with emotion. "W-What do you mean?" Desperately she clung to the last shred of hope she had, Plato was shy, maybe he was having second thoughts about going out: "We don't have to go out to dinner if you don't want to, we could just..."

The red and white tom shook his head. "That's not what I meant." He looked down at his paws again. "I meant I can't be together with you anymore."

There was a shocked silence as Victoria tried to process what he had just said. Was he actually breaking up with her, on their anniversary? Her wide, blue eyes filled with tears as she looked at her tomfriend willing it to be some kind of silly joke but his face was serious. It was impossible to believe that just moments before she had felt so happy and excited. Now she just wanted to run away and hide in her den and cry. They were meant to be together, weren't they? She loved Plato. Why was he doing this? She just couldn't seem to understand. The white queen reached out and tried to take Plato's paw but he jerked it away from her. "W-why?", she managed to ask shakily.

Shrugging Plato turned away from her. "I just don't like you anymore. I don't think we're right for each other." He scuffed his paws in the dirt at his feet awkwardly and wished Victoria would just stop asking questions and go away. How was it so hard to understand that he didn't want to be together with her?

"B-but I thought you loved me. It's our anniversary. I thought...," the sentence trailed off into a sob and Victoria buried her face in her paws. This was the worst day of her life, she thought miserably.

Exasperatedly Plato turned back to look at his ex-queenfriend feeling the overwhelming urge to shake her and tell her to pull herself together. "Well, I don't," he snapped sounding a little bit more unkind than he meant to but she really was very annoying when she was like this, making a big fuss about nothing. "And it's not our anniversary because we're not together anymore."

This was definitely the wrong thing to say as it made Victoria sob louder than ever. "But why?", she sniffed grabbing hold of his arm and clinging onto it as if she could somehow convince him to like her again.

Looking down at her Plato wondered what he had ever seen in her. Her eyes were red and swollen, her fur stuck up in all direction as if she had been dragged through a hedge and she was bordering on looking hysterical. Definitely not his type, he decided, he had done the right thing by breaking up with her. She was far to emotional and silly and she couldn't even act like a grown-up, just a pathetic, little kitten. "I don't want to be your tomfriend because you are annoying, emotional and you always have to act like you are so perfect even though you're not and you are far too clingy. Happy now?" The tom pulled his arm out of her grasp and went to stalk past her and off across the Junkyard. "Now leave me alone."

"But, Plato,..." Victoria jumped after him and tried to catch hold of him to stop him from leaving.

Without thinking what he was doing Plato swung round and shoved the little queen as hard as he could away from himself. She flew through the air and landed with a crunch against a nearby pile of rubbish where she lay blinking up at him, looking dazed.

For a few moments neither of them moved they just stared at each other, then Victoria unsteadily scrambled to her feet and before Plato could move or say anything she was running off across the Junkyard, tears streaming down her cheeks. As she ran Victoria ignored the stabbing pain in her ankle and her pounding headache. The most important thing was to get away from Plato, then she would be able to think. Not even looking where she was going she rounded a corner and ran straight into Mistoffelees who was just coming out of his den, almost knocking him flying.

"Vic, what is it? What's happened?" The tuxedo tom asked in surprise as she collapsed against him sobbing and shaking. Gently he wrapped his arms round her and led her into his den where he steered her into a seat and sat down opposite her. "Calm down and tell me what's wrong," he said kindly, offering her a biscuit from a plate on the little table beside him.

Taking the biscuit and nibbling it Victoria wiped her eyes on the back of her paw and smoothed her fur down again, not particularly wanting Mistoffelees to see her looking a mess. "It's Plato," she told him after a few more bites of her biscuit, "It was our anniversary today and..." There was a pause as she had to dry her eyes again and get her emotions under control before she could continue. "He just broke up with me," the queen sniffed miserably.

Mistoffelees reached out and took Victoria's paw, stroking her soft, white fur in what he hoped was a soothing way. "Oh, Vic, I am sorry. That wasn't a very nice thing to do." Inside Mistoffelees was seething that Plato could be so heartless and mean but he just smiled supportively at the sad queen and kept his feelings to himself. It wouldn't make her feel any better if he got cross.

"Then I asked him why and he said I was annoying and clingy and pretended to be perfect all the time." Victoria couldn't help feeling hurt and offended as she repeated what Plato had said. It just wasn't true, was it?

Loyally Mistoffelees jumped in to defend her: "You're definitely not annoying and you never pretend to be perfect. You are just helpful and kind, that's all. He just doesn't understand you and he never does anything useful so he can't see why you do. Just ignore him, he doesn't know what he's talking about." It took a lot of effort not to let Victoria see how angry he was at hearing all those nasty things about her. He got slowly to his feet and moved over to sit beside her and wrap an arm around her shoulders. "If he thinks that then you're better off without him anyway so it's a good thing he broke up with you."

"It's not a good thing, though," Victoria wailed and lent her head on her friend's shoulder, "I thought we would always be together and... I don't know, I just wasn't expecting him to dump me. I didn't think he'd be that horrible and when I tried to talk to him he pushed me so I fell and hurt my ankle." Only now when she told Misto about it did Victoria actually realise that her leg hurt. Looking down at it she saw that the ankle was swollen and bruised.

Immediately Mistoffelees jumped up and rushed around the den looking for some ice. "Why didn't you say you were hurt earlier," he demanded as he rummaged through a draw, "We should go and ask Jenny to have a look at it." He straightened up holding some ice Victoria could have sworn hadn't been there a second ago and very carefully wrapped it in an old towel and put it on Victoria's leg. "Does that feel any better?"

Nodding Victoria lent her head back against the wall and wished she could just curl up and go to sleep. This had turned into the worst day ever and she just wanted to feel better again. Then she had a brilliant idea. "Misto..." He paused making her a cup of tea and turned to look at her. "You can do magic, can't you? So you could make me feel better." The white queen looked hopefully up at her friend, her eyes brimming with tears.

The magician didn't look entirely convinced that it was a good idea. He frowned thoughtfully and drummed his claws on the table. "I'm not sure..."

"Oh, please, Misto. I know you can do it." Victoria flung herself off her chair and wrapped her arms round Mistoffelees' neck. "You could just cheer me up a bit so that I can get some sleep. I'm sure I'll feel better in the morning. Please!" Pleadingly she gazed up at him and gave him her most adorable smile.

With a sigh the tom prised her arms off him and sat her back in her chair. "Alright, I'll try but I'm not promising anything. I don't know if it will work." When she nodded eagerly Mistoffelees cleared his throat and concentrated for a minute. "Ok, I'm ready. Here goes." There was a sudden, blinding flash of light and both cats were knocked backwards off their chairs.

* * *

Slowly Victoria raised her head and looked blearily around the room. Everything looked slightly out of focus and her head was pounding uncomfortably. Closing her eyes again the queen let her head flop back onto the floor. She tried to work out what had happened but the last thing she could remember was trying to persuade Misto to cheer her up...

With a sigh Victoria tried to sit up but her limbs felt too heavy, in fact her whole body felt a bit strange. Looking down at herself the queen was surprised and horrified to see that her fur had changed colour. With a shriek she leapt to her feet in horror. "My fur!", she wailed, "What's happened to my fur?"

"Vic, is that you?" Across the room Mistoffelees sat up rubbing his head. "What happened?"

The two cats looked up at each other and froze. Victoria was staring at _herself_. She looked down at her fur and noticed to her horror that it was black with distinctive tuxedo markings. Eyes widening she looked back up at _herself_ lying where Mistoffelees had been moments before.

"What on earth is going on?"


	2. Entangled

Before either of them could move or say anything else the door creaked open and Munkustrap poked his head into the room. The first thing that struck him was how unusually messy Misto's den was. Books and papers were scattered over the floor, the furniture had been flung against the walls and all the lights had gone out so the den was only illuminated by the fading light from the single window. Then he noticed the two young cats sat on the floor opposite each other looking startled and confused. Maybe they'd fallen out, Munkustrap thought to himself, or maybe they were just reorganizing and it had got a bit out of hand. "Hello, you two," the silver tabby said with a smile, "I've been looking everywhere for you, Misto. You were supposed to be at a meeting ten minutes ago. It's not like you to be late."

"Hi," Victoria mumbled and looked down at her now black paws. The last thing they needed was Munkustrap finding out about what had just happened and telling them off. What had just happened though? She still wasn't quite sure herself.

Jumping up Mistoffelees went to hurry over to join Munkustrap. "I'm coming. I'm so sorry I'm late. I..."

"That's alright, Victoria, we don't need you to come as well. Just Misto," Munkustrap interrupted, frowning at him. "Are you coming?" He turned to look questioningly at Victoria and held the door open for her as if trying to encourage her to hurry up.

Looking frantically from Mistoffelees to Munkustrap and back again Victoria got slowly to her feet. She had no idea what to do. Should she tell Munkustrap what was going on? Was it better to make up some excuse and avoid going to the meeting? Desperately she tried to think of a way to get out of it but the silver tabby was tapping his paw impatiently and she just couldn't come up with anything. "I'm on my way," she said slowly and to her surprise her voice sounded like Misto's voice. She clapped a paw over her mouth and stared at her friend in horror. He was looking back at her equally horrified but there was nothing he could do, Munkustrap had wrapped an arm round Victoria's shoulders and guided her out of the den before he could say anything.

Mistoffelees was left stood in the middle of his den staring down at his new white fur feeling totally confused. "Don't tell anyone until I've worked out what's going on," he tried to whisper to Victoria but he wasn't sure she'd actually heard him.

Outside Munkustrap was walking briskly across the Junkyard so that Victoria had to jog to keep up with him. Every now and then he glanced over at her and frowned as if considering whether to say something or not. "Mistoffelees...," he began eventually, "you do know that if there was anything wrong you could always come and talk to me about it, don't you?"

Unsure of what to say Victoria just nodded mutely and hoped the conversation would be over there. She didn't really want to have to talk to anybody until she knew why they all thought she was Misto. Actually she'd quite like to know why her fur now looked like Misto's as well and why she sounded like her friend. Better to just stay quiet and avoid people until then, she decided.

"So is there anything wrong?", Munkustrap persisted, "Anything at all? It's just you don't seem quite yourself today. It's not like you to be late and your den is normally so tidy..." He tailed off looking concerned.

They were approaching the meeting place and Victoria could already see the toms gathered there

waiting for Munkustrap to arrive. She quickened her pace trying to get there and end the conversation before Munkustrap could ask her anything else. "Everything's fine," she muttered and quickly went over to stand beside Asparagus, well away from Munkustrap.

The silver tabby watched Mistoffelees go and wondered what on earth could be the matter with him. He just wasn't acting like himself today, even if he did say everything was fine. It was strange because he had been perfectly normal earlier. Maybe he could ask Jennyanydots to speak to him and see if he was feeling alright. That might be a good idea.

Turning to the other Jellicles Munkustrap cleared his throat: "As you all know we are here to discuss security. There have been several sightings of strange cats near the Junkyard and we just want to keep everybody safe. I'm sure there is no need for alarm but you can never be too careful. Does anybody have any suggestions for increasing the security around the Junkyard?" He looked around but nobody seemed to have any good ideas they wanted to put forward. "Somebody must have an idea."

"Well, we could increase the patrols round the Junkyard," Alonzo suggested slowly, "but I can't think of anything else."

Some of the other toms nodded but Asparagus shook his head. "We already spend enough time patrolling the Junkyard as it is and we want to have more time to spend with our families not less. I don't think that's a good idea at all."

"It doesn't take up that much of our time," Admetus objected, "Only a few hours."

"Well, I would personally like more time with my family," Asparagus insisted stubbornly, "I'm always out in the evening when Jellylorum needs help putting the kittens to bed."

"Why don't we just change the schedule so Asparagus always has the evening off?", Alonzo suggested looking over at Munkustrap, "Then we can increase the patrols he can still be there to help Jelly if she needs him."

As they continued to argue about redoing the schedule Victoria found her mind drifting off to think about other things. Stood at the front of the group was Plato and she couldn't stop herself from watching him dreamily as he debated with the other toms. He was just so tall and handsome and... Victoria stopped herself angrily before she could think anything else. He didn't love her, she reminded herself, there was no point thinking about him anymore. It was over. A tear trickled slowly down her cheek and dripped onto the ground in front of her. Hastily the queen wiped it away. She was supposed to be acting like Misto, at least for the moment, and he would never cry in public. Glancing around she checked if anybody seemed to have seen her but they were all too busy to notice anything.

"I just think we should ask the other cats who live in the area to keep an eye out for strangers," Plato was saying when Victoria focused on the conversation again, "They can tell us if they see anything odd."

Victoria caught herself listening to his voice as he spoke and thinking how perfect he sounded. Why couldn't she just pull herself together? Why did she have to act like a lovestruck kitten? He didn't like her, he'd made that very clear. She shuffled further back so she couldn't hear her ex-tomfriend and tried to think of something else. For some reason she found herself wondering what it would be like to go for a meal with Mistoffelees when everything was back to normal. That would be nice. Just a little, private table at the back of a restaurant, some candles...

Her fantasy was interrupted suddenly by Munkustrap's voice: "What do you think, Misto? I know you had some ideas on the subject. You were telling me about them yesterday." Munkustrap had noticed the tuxedo tom skulking at the back, being unusually quiet and decided it was time he joined in the conversation.

All Victoria could manage was to look up at the Jellicle protector and open and close her mouth several times. The toms had all turned to look at her expectantly waiting for her to come up with some brilliant idea to solve all their problems but she just didn't have a clue. What did she know about guarding the Junkyard after all? How was she supposed to know what Misto's ideas were? "I... I... I can't remember." She blushed bright red and looked down at her paws, avoiding everybody's eyes.

"What do you mean you can't remember?", Plato asked sounding almost a little smug, "How can you have forgotten an idea you had yesterday?"

"It's just...I don't know. I mean I just can't think at the moment... Headache," Victoria stammered feeling more and more mortified by the second. This was all going horribly wrong. Nobody was supposed to talk to her, let alone ask her for ideas. Feeling flustered the queen smoothed down her fur so she wouldn't have to look up at any of the toms who were still all staring at her.

Hastily Munkustrap rescued her from any more questions by coughing to get everyone's attention again. "Well, maybe you'll be able to remember later," he said kindly, "In the meantime let's move on, shall we? The next thing I wanted to discuss with you all was improving some of the dens. The storm last week damaged some of them quite badly and they really need repairing, so we can improve them at the same time."

"How many dens need repairing?", Tumblebrutus wanted to know, "I know Jenny and Skimble's roof leaks now and I think Victoria said something about having a hole in the wall of her den the other day."

The silver tabby checked a list he was holding. "Five dens need repairing, Jenny and Skimble's, Victoria's, Bombalurina's, Alonzo and Cassandra's and mine."

"We should dror out plans of wot needs doin'," Mungojerrie suggested from where he had been leaning on a box to one side, studying his claws.

The other toms all looked a bit shocked that Mungojerrie had made such a sensible and organized suggestion, but quickly agreed and Plato ran off to fetch some paper and a pencil. While he was gone the others brought over a crate to used as a table. When the young tom returned Munkustrap took the paper and sketched a rough outline of the Junkyard on it.

"It's getting a bit gloomy," he commented as he drew, "Misto, you wouldn't mind..." He waved a paw in the general direction of a string of lights hanging above them, without looking up from his work.

Very slowly Victoria tipped her head back to look up at the bulbs above her and swallowed audibly. Just because for some reason she seemed to look like her friend did not mean she had any idea how to make the lights come on. The only time Mistoffelees had tried to explain his magic to her he had said it just sort of worked and he wasn't sure how. _Very helpful_, she thought sourly and scowled in the direction of her friend's den where he was probably sat waiting for her to come back with absolutely no idea how badly she was doing at pretending to be him. Focusing all her attention back on the task in hand Victoria tried staring at the dark bulbs and thinking: _Light! _ Unsurprisingly nothing happened. Subtly, behind her back she tried both waving a paw and clapping, but neither of those was any more successful.

"Mistoffelees?"

Victoria looked around and saw that everybody was watching her again, their expressions ranging from amused to annoyed. She went bright red again and mumbled: "I don't feel good," before turning and sprinting away across the Junkyard as fast as her paws could carry her. Unfortunately it was a lot harder than it looked getting used to running with bigger paws and longer legs so she stumbled and fell a couple of times.

"What's the matter with him?", Tumblebrutus asked into the silence after Mistoffelees had run off.

Munkustrap shrugged, totally confused. "No idea."

Almost in tears Victoria turned a corner without looking where she was going and almost knocked Etcetera flying. The pale queen-kit had been stood just out of sight watching the meeting with interest and Victoria didn't see her until she crashed straight into her. Flinging out a paw Victoria caught her friend before she could hit the ground and stood her upright again. "Sorry, Cettie, I didn't see you," she apologized and made to walk past her towards Misto's den.

"Misto, wait! Can I talk to you?" Etcetera bounded along beside her, beaming happily and clinging onto her paw. "It's just I've been trying to talk to you for ages and I've never got the chance but now it's just us so I can tell you."

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Victoria stopped and turned to face the kitten. She knew Etcetera well enough to know that she would never get rid of her unless she let her say whatever it was she wanted to say. Better to get it over with quickly then, so that she could go and ask Mistoffelees what on earth was going on.

"I wanted to ask you to go on a date with me," Etcetera announced, "I've liked you for ages but I've just never got round to telling you."

This was not what Victoria had been expecting at all and she just stood staring stupidly at Etcetera for a second. She was quite surprised that she had never noticed that her friend liked Mistoffelees. Normally Etcetera was unable to keep even the smallest of secrets.

"So, what do you think?" The queen-kit was looking hopefully up at her with large pleading eyes.

What did Misto think? Victoria didn't actually have a clue if he knew about Etcetera's feeling or not or if he actually wanted to go out with her. Suddenly she found herself hoping that he didn't want to go on a date with Etcetera. Was she jealous? Did she want to go out with Mistoffelees? The queen wasn't sure but she was certain that she didn't like the idea of him and Etcetera at all. Angry with herself, she shook her head. She couldn't let her own feelings spoil something nice for Misto. What if he loved Etcetera too? It would be dishonest to pretend to be Misto and turn the queen-kit down...

"Is that a no?" Etcetera looked absolutely crushed and her large eyes filled with tears.

Quickly Victoria grabbed her paw before she could start to cry. "No, of course not. I was just thinking about something else. I'd love to go on a date with you. It sounds really fun." She hadn't actually meant to agree, she had been trying to find a way to get out of answering, but the sight of Etcetera's disappointed face had just made her feel too guilty. After all it couldn't hurt. It was only one date, not like they'd be mates or anything.

"Really? I can't wait! I have to go now because I'm supposed to be in bed but I'll talk to you tomorrow. I can't believe he said yes. He likes me too..." The kittens voice faded slowly away into the gloom as she skipped and bounced back towards her parent's den.

Victoria was left feeling angry and hurt. Now that Etcetera had gone she didn't want them to go out together after all. Why had she said yes? She could have hit herself for being so stupid. Now Misto would abandon her and like Etcetera more. He wouldn't need a best friend anymore.

At that moment she heard voices approaching from the direction she had just run from. Clearly the meeting was over and the toms were all going home again. Not wanting to be found stood there like an idiot Victoria set off again, dashing round some more piles of junk and finally flung herself into Mistoffelees' den. "Tell me what's going on!", she demanded before Misto could even open his mouth to say hello.

Awkwardly the tom got to his feet. "Well...," he paused and shifted uncomfortably, "when I tried to cheer you up..." He stopped again and looked at the ground avoiding her eye.

"What?!", the queen snapped and slammed the door loudly behind her. She was not feeling in a particularly forgiving mood and the whole situation was just starting to irritate her. All she wanted was for everything to go back to normal or better still for none of this to have happened in the first place.

"We seem to have swapped bodies," Mistoffelees muttered so quietly that she actually had to lean forwards to catch what he was saying at all.

"Well, switch us back again! This is terrible. I had to go to that stupid meeting and they wanted to know what your ideas for security were, but of course I didn't know what they were...," Victoria took a deep breath and continued her rant, "Then Munkustrap wanted me to make the lights come on and I can't do magic! It was just too embarrassing so I ran away and I met Etcetera and she said she wants to go on a date with you and she looked so hopeful so I said yes and..."

The whole time the tom had been looking down at the floor like a naughty kitten being scolded, but when she said mentioned Etcetera he looked up sharply and interrupted: "You said what?! I don't want to go out with Etcetera! I've been avoiding her for weeks! She just isn't my type and she can be so clingy so I didn't want to talk to her. I can't believe you said yes!"

"Forget about Etcetera!", Victoria practically screamed, "Change us back! Now!"

Mistoffelees avoided her eye again and whispered in a tiny voice: "I can't. I don't know how to."


End file.
